One deck, one draw, several kinds of quads
The underlying game uses a standard 52-card deck without wild cards. You receive five cards, keep any number and replace the rest once. Replacements come from the 47 cards outside the original hand. Only the final five-card hand is evaluated; there is no opponent and no second draw.
A pair of jacks, queens, kings or aces is the lowest paying hand. A low pair pays nothing. The highest applicable category determines one award: a royal flush is not paid again as a straight flush or ordinary flush.
This page covers the standard 9/6 schedule with a 50-for-1 straight flush. The numbers 9 and 6 describe full house and flush payouts per coin at maximum bet. Other schedules, including versions paying 55 for a straight flush, have different returns.
The complete five-coin paytable
| Final hand | Credits won (5 coins) |
|---|---|
| Royal Flush | 4,000 |
| Straight Flush | 250 |
| Four Aces + 2–4 | 2,000 |
| Four 2s–4s + A–4 | 800 |
| Four Aces + 5–K | 800 |
| Four 2s–4s + 5–K | 400 |
| Four 5s–Kings | 250 |
| Full House | 45 |
| Flush | 30 |
| Straight | 20 |
| Three of a Kind | 15 |
| Two Pair | 5 |
| Jacks or Better | 5 |
| All other hands | 0 |
These are gross returns, including the stake. Two pair and a high pair each return five credits on five wagered: both break even. At a $0.25 denomination a hand costs $1.25, a full house returns $11.25, and four aces with a low kicker return $500.
The royal pays 4,000 credits at five coins. Common machines give a smaller proportional royal award below maximum coins, so the return on this page assumes five coins every hand. Choose an affordable denomination; increasing the dollar stake does not improve these probabilities.
Read the fifth card before pricing four of a kind
A kicker is the card that is not part of the four matching ranks. Four aces receive their top award only with a 2, 3 or 4. Four twos, threes or fours receive their top award with an ace or another rank from 2 through 4. The kicker cannot match the quad rank: a standard deck has only four cards of each rank.
| Example | Category | Five-coin return |
|---|---|---|
| A♠ A♥ A♦ A♣ 2♠ | Four aces + 2–4 | 2,000 |
| A♠ A♥ A♦ A♣ K♠ | Four aces + 5–K | 800 |
| 3♠ 3♥ 3♦ 3♣ A♠ | Four 2s–4s + A–4 | 800 |
| 3♠ 3♥ 3♦ 3♣ K♠ | Four 2s–4s + 5–K | 400 |
| 9♠ 9♥ 9♦ 9♣ A♠ | Four 5s–Kings | 250 |
Two categories happen to pay 800 credits, but they are different events. Our payout table, outcome distribution and rare-win counts retain both categories so you can see what actually occurred.
Why familiar holds can change
The objective is the highest average payout across the possible draws, not the highest chance of any payout. Extra value in aces and qualifying kickers can outweigh a made hand. A Jacks or Better chart does not account for those awards or the reduced two-pair return.
Four aces with a five: discard the five
With A♠ A♥ A♦ A♣ 5♠, keep all four aces and draw one card. Of the 47 available replacements, 12 are low kickers worth 400 times the total wager; the other 35 pay 160 times. The expected gross return is (12 × 400 + 35 × 160) / 47 = 221.2766 times the wager, above the 160 times from standing pat. If the fifth card is already a 2, 3 or 4, keep all five for the 400-times award.
Some full houses are worth breaking
For A♠ A♥ A♦ K♣ K♦, keeping the three aces and drawing two has an expected gross return of about 12.7169 times the wager, versus 9 times for keeping the full house. This is a comparison for those exact cards and this paytable, not permission to break every full house.
98.9808% is a long-run expectation, not a session target
The published combination counts imply 98.9807835% theoretical RTP, a house edge of about 1.0192%, with optimal decisions and this five-coin schedule. On $1,000 of total wagers, expected loss is about $10.19. Total wagers means all hand stakes added together, including money wagered again after a payout; it is not your opening bankroll.
The per-hand return variance is about 41.985 in squared wager units, roughly twice that of 8/5 Bonus Poker. Two pair merely returning the stake and rare large quad awards produce substantial swings. A short session may miss all the large awards, or one award may lift its observed return far above 100%.
At 100 hands, the royal count has an expectation of only about 0.00245. Even millions of hands have sampling variation. Session stopping at a chosen length or insufficient bankroll describes your session; it does not force the outcome distribution to converge to the published RTP.
The simulator samples terminal categories rather than dealing and evaluating holds. Its card faces are labeled illustrations. For actual hold practice use the separately linked trainer; the simulator is for bankroll and session comparisons.
Questions readers ask
Does a larger bet make bonus quads more likely?
No. At the same five-coin schedule, denomination scales every stake and payout equally. It changes the dollars at risk, not the category probabilities.
Is this the same as Bonus Poker?
No. Bonus Poker 8/5 pays two for one on two pair and has three quad categories without kicker bonuses. Double Double Bonus has five quad categories and pays one for one on two pair.
Can I win or withdraw real money here?
No. All balances and wagers are simulated. There are no deposits, withdrawals or prizes. If you gamble elsewhere, set affordable time and loss limits and do not chase losses.
Sources & calculation notes
Wizard of Odds: Double Double Bonus tables, specifically the 9/6 98.98% table; exact integer combination counts, not its rounded probability column. Published variance comparison. Sources checked October 4, 2026.
The full-house example enumerates all 1,081 possible two-card draws: 12 top ace quads, 34 other ace quads, 67 full houses and 968 trips. The simulator uses the full optimal-play terminal distribution; it does not implement the simplified strategy chart.
Compare Bonus Poker 8/5, review draw-poker fundamentals or calculate observed session RTP.